Mythology, Music, Magic, and Medicine All Come Together to Create This Modern Miracle
A hysterectomy is a surgical procedure that is performed to remove the uterus, or the uterus as well as the cervix, which can make this one of the most emotionally fraught procedures that a person can go through. Are you ever really the same person again after part of you is removed? And who would you even ask to find a suitable answer to that question.
And it is for all of those reasons, as well as a whole swell of medical reasons, that a hysterectomy often results in high levels of anxiety for the post-op patients. Directly after a surgery where they permanently cut a part of you out is enough to make anybody nervous.
But not to worry, there is a bright future on the horizon when it comes to the treatment of anxiety in Post-Op Hysterectomy patients. Check out the article below to find out how modern medicine is reimagining the teachings of antiquity to develop entirely new forms of treatment that are based around the playing of music during the healing process. This is usually just called Music Therapy, but it comes in all kinds of different forms and is by no means the first time that the relationship between healing and music has been observed.
The relationship between music and the healing processes of the body has long been noticed by those in the medical field. In fact, the relationship between music and medicine has been observed for so long that the Greek God Apollo was both the god of healing and the god of music. But it is fascinating that one of humanity’s great early civilizations (The Athenians) firmly believed that there was some sort of underlying connection between the process of medicine and the playing of music.
And while music was always sort of regarded as being a healing art form, many people view it as being an artform that is great at addressing emotional and psychological feelings and issues in a way that other artforms are unable to do. And this is certainly true about music. It can have a whole slew of different positive outcomes on your mental health and emotional well being.
However, during the First World War the nurses and local women would come to the hospitals and play music for all the injured troops that were laid up in their beds. This certainly helped brighten up the days of the injured soldiers, but it had another incredible outcome when the doctors and staff began to notice that the patients who were having music played for them seemed to be healing at a stronger rate than the patients who were less exposed to the music.
Fast forward 100 years and the research is in and it is universally in the side of music having a positive effect on patient outcomes. And this seems to be pretty universal across different types of ailments, injuries, or sicknesses. Music helps the body heal no matter what it is that it needs to heal.
Now that doesn’t mean the same type of music therapy is going to be right for every patient. No, there’s been over a century of trial and error and research that has gone into elevating folk music in the European countryside into a legitimate form of therapy and medicine with a wide variety of different uses on everything from speech therapy to Neurologic Music Therapy.
But if you or somebody you know is suffering with anxiety as a post-op hysterectomy patient and you want to find a healthy and impactful solution to help them recover, then definitely take a look into getting them involved in music therapy. And with the miracles of modern technology you can even find incredible music therapy programs right online!
Music therapy has been shown to help patients overcome all the emotional and physical alienation that one often feels after a major surgery. Music Therapy provides an antithesis to emotional and physical alienation because it helps get the patient engaging with others in a fun and upbeat kind of way. And besides, a music therapy room creates a serene environment that, when coupled with the calming music therapy music, provides a pleasant distraction from any sort of pain or anxiety.
And I think that this communal and laid back feature of music therapy can be just the thing to help alleviate the jarring life changes a person goes through after they have undergone a hysterectomy.
I am sure you can see that hysterectomy patients might be the exact group that could stand to wildly gain from music therapy to soothe their anxiety. Not only is the music therapy room going to be welcoming and inviting (which should hopefully help mitigate any low level anxiety they are dealing with) but the actual process of the care involves the playing of music in a serene room that is built to bring the patient’s mind to ease.
And some researchers out there have even gone so far as to recently prove that music therapy is specifically beneficial for women who undergo hysterectomies. In fact some modern researchers have shown, that according to their research, playing specific music at the right volume can significantly lower anxiety levels and increase patients’ satisfaction scores for those who have had abdominal hysterectomy surgeries.
Music therapy can even be applicable during the surgery process itself. Some researchers at Cambridge discovered during one of their studies that “after 2 hours in the post anesthesia care unit, the postoperative music group had less anxiety and pain and required less morphine after 1 hour as compared to their control group.”
A hysterectomy can be a totally life changing medical operation. A hysterectomy comes with all the regular dangers and stress as any other type of surgery, but it is different because at the end of the procedure a part of your body will literally no longer be a part of you. And I can’t imagine a more jarring experience to go through personally.
But there is good news on the horizon with what all the research is showing for the use of Music Therapy both during the operation process and the recovery process.
Overall I think if you are struggling with feelings of anxiety after your hysterectomy, or somebody you know has been demonstrating a lot of anxious characteristics after their own hysterectomy, then I think you strongly owe it to yourself to at least give music therapy a try. There is a slew of data that is quickly turning into a tsunami of evidence on the medicinal efficacy of music therapy being a powerful tool during the healing process.
And if you are specifically trying to treat anxiety, then music therapy is almost tailor made for that very exact scenario. You’ll be in a calm and welcoming environment and the most stressful thing you’ll have to do while you are there is listen to some music. Which is a pretty excellent way to lower your anxiety whether you are at the hospital, stuck in traffic, or just hoping to fall asleep fast.
A hysterectomy procedure is not something that is easy to go through. It often comes during a really trying time in a woman’s life, and it's easy for that many stressors and obligations all at the same time to become incredibly overwhelming. And that is where the music therapy comes in to alleviate their anxiety and help get them situated back on the path to normal! But not every music therapy session is going to be the same as all the others so be sure to do some digging to find out which style would be best for you!
